1st Edition
Transforming Waste Management Challenges and Success of an Indian City
Waste management has become a great challenge for cities and urban areas, especially in countries with a high population density. This book looks at the waste management apparatus of the city of Indore, India to see how the city overhauled its waste management practices and strategies to become one of the cleanest cities in the country.
The volume highlights the challenges that the city faced and their use of innovative business models, technology, and infrastructure as well as instituting sweeping policy and process changes to bring change. It examines the city’s successful efforts to bring informal waste management systems to the mainstream and other interventions to close the gaps between government institutions, sanitation workers and the general public. It further throws light on the use of technological interventions that the city government adopted for streamlining waste management and developing a sustainable business model for waste and emission reduction leading to achieve carbon credits and net zero goals.
This book will be of interest to students, teachers, and researchers of urban planning and management, urban sociology, urban geography, waste management and environmental studies. It will also be useful to policymakers and professionals working in the field of city management planning and governance.
Biography
Mercy S Samuel is an Urban Management specialist with more than a decade of experience in teaching and researching on waste management, climate change, and circular economy. Dr. Samuel had been on the sub-committee for policy formulation on circular economy at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for dry and wet waste management. She has published extensively on waste management practices in India and led students and government officials to look at exemplary practices in waste management internationally.
Syed Asad Ali Warsi is an esteemed Environmentalist and Sustainability Advisor, has dedicated 26 years to the field of Environment Engineering, Science, and Waste Management. His impactful contributions span national and international projects, policy formulations, and advisory roles for the Government of India and numerous state governments. Dr. Warsi's excellence in Sustainable Development, Solid Waste Management, and Circular Economy Models has transformed over 300 cities and towns in India. Notably, he served as the Project Management Consultant for Indore Municipal Corporation, which earned the title of India's Cleanest City from 2017 to 2020.
‘India’s urbanization is unique in many ways. Its social-political-economic context, demographic diversity, and the nature of geopolitics impose an unenviable set of constraints in the performance of its urban systems, very different from what other countries, especially of the West have experienced in the past. It is in this background that the emergence of home-grown, local best practices in critical areas of urban work becomes utterly important. Besides, India’s scale demands the development of affordable yet excellent solutions, something that cannot be achieved by merely copy-pasting other country templates. This book is about solid waste management, one of the most vital areas of urban work. It focuses on the Indore story, a truly global yet local best practice that promises to inspire many other cities in their efforts to manage waste better. A careful reading of the book will expose the reader to the nuances of its success and provide valuable ideas for ‘smart’ replication.
—Kunal Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, Mission Director, Smart Cities mission
‘India has made significant strides in urban sanitation over the past decade. Yet, solid waste management remains a persistent challenge that needs even sharper policy attention and implementation focus. This book strives to keep the solid waste management challenge of India’s cities in focus against the backdrop of environmental sustainability, and make an important contribution to addressing the challenge.’
— Srikanth Viswanathan, Chief Executive Officer, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy
